Student Life @ SHU

Orientation Leader Applications AVAILABLE!

Hi everyone!

Part of my job as the Student Life Graduate Assistant, is that I get the amazing opportunity to oversee the Orientation program! This is probably my favorite part of my job. I was an Orientation Leader entering my senior year, then last summer I shadowed the previous Student Life GA, and this year I get to run the show with my two Orientation Leader Chairs who were selected in the beginning of February. They are previous Orientation Leaders who will take on more of a leadership role this year. They also work in the Student Life office in preparation from now till the Orientations in June.

 

Orientation Leader applications became available to sign out on February 16th in the Student Life Office. Last week and this week, we are holding mandatory information sessions for anyone who is looking to apply. Orientation Leaders would move back onto campus Monday May 30th and stay till June 17th 2011.

Applications are due Monday March 21st by 5pm in the Student Life Office - following that, you will recieve an email stating whether or not you can sign up for an interview. Interviews will be held Sunday March 27th all day in the Faculty Lounge. Orientation Leader annoucements will be made Tuesday March 29th!!

I am extremely excited to get the summer started to see some new faces around the Student Life Office!

502 Turkeys!

Hope you all had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving!

Part of my job is to advise the Freshmen and Sophomore Student Government Boards. This year, the Sophomore board decided that they wanted to set a goal of raising enough money to purchase and donate 500 turkeys to families in need in our neighboring Bridgeport community. In the middle of October, their Community Service Chair, Alexa Wrinn started to frequent my office. She had the awesome idea of working with our IT department to set up a secure online donation site on our website. IT was very helpful and worked with us to set up the site. They decided that they would set a minimum donation online at $15 (which they estimated as the price of a small turkey). The board emailed out the website to their families and friends as well as the university community and all university parents. Donations started coming in left and right!

    This event was spear-headed by the Sophomore class but they had a Student Government wide effort. All boards did everything they could to help. Such as, at SHU Hoops Madness they asked for a "recommended" dollar donation at the door to go to the Turkey Drive and that event raised then $448. Also, at Senior Pub Night, they $2 cover charge went to the Turkey Drive which raised about $92. The board had tables outside of Chartwells for 6 different days where they asked students, faculty and staff for donations. As an incentive for donating, they advertised "get your name on a feather!" The larger the donation, the larger the feather they recieved to be displayed on "Tommy the Turkey."

 
Above is a picture of "Tommy" all decorated with the donation feathers. The board encouraged teams to pool together and combine their efforts to put their team name on large feather. Next to "Tommy the Turkey" was a giant thermometer to track the donations and see how close they were to their goal of 500 turkeys. In another effort to raise funds, two Student Government members dressed up as a Turkey and Pilgrim and went around to all the offices on campus asking for donations. The faculty, staff and students donated $360 to Tommy and the Pilgrim!

 

After all of the efforts, on the last day of our drive, around 4pm they reached their goal of 502 turkeys! They had raised over $7,100. Alexa Wrinn, who is the Community Service Chair for the board was so estatic that she started to cry in excitement! All of their time, effort and hard work was rewarded! Shop Rite of Stratford worked with us to place an order of 500 turkeys that we picked up on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Right after that, members of Student Government delivered the Turkeys to St. Charles Food Pantry in Bridgeport. So many families had a meal on Thanksgiving thanks to thing university wide effort. I am so very proud of the board and all that they have done! 502 turkeys! Congrats again to the Class board of 2013!

Move-In Days & Family Weekend

Hi again everyone!

It is now the middle of November and I can finally take a minute to breathe and to update you on life in the Student Life office! After my last post, we moved about 600 students into our three freshmen dorms. Various sports teams, clubs and Greek Organizations volunteered their time to help unload cars and bring everything and anything you could possibly imagine up to their dorm rooms. We have Move-In day down to a science! Here is a picture of some of our SHU students who came out to help!

 Freshmen Move-In Day - September 5th 2010

That night, we had a Welcome Fest event for all our new students! It included giant inflatable obstacle courses, Super Duper Weenie, a Pizza Pie Wagon, make your own street signs, and airbrush trucker hats, all for free! The following night we had all of the Greek Organizations come out and get students interested in recruitment as well as airbrush pennants, caricature artists, Rita's Italian Ice, pretzel bites and a giant Bungee Extreme event! Students were able to socialize and get to know the Greek Organizations on campus as a great way to get invovled.

 "Get the Scoop" Welcome Fest event - Monday September 6th 2010

Just when I thought all the planning was over, Family Weekend came at me full force! This year's 20th Annual Family Weekend was beach themed!

 

Friday night's event was a Wine & Cheese party with a Jazz band in the University commons with a giant ice sculpture of Big Red on a surfboard. Following that was The Landsharks band in the Edgerton Center. They were a fun Jimmy Buffet/Beach Boys tribute band who REALLY got the audience involved. They had a hula hoop contest, and a conga line throughout the auditorium! It was a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to love it!

 The Wine & Cheese event - Friday October 22nd 2010

Saturday was the Tailgate Party. We had photo post cards, sand art, kettle corn, face painting, hayrides, a Steel Drum band, a mechanical surf board and tons of food! We gave away leis as families walked into the fenced off area, and a Big Red car magnet! The Tailgate Party included admission into the football game, where Sacred Heart beat Georgetown! It was an awesome day, and we couldn't have asked for better weather!

 
Sacred Heart's Tailgate Party - Saturday October 23rd 2010

Saturday night's event was The Broadway Boys in the Edgerton Center. They were a group of 6 broadway performers from various shows such as Jersey Boys, RENT and Wicked. They had such amazing voices and were beautiful to listen to! Directly following the show was an elaborate dessert reception in the dining hall. The reception included chocolate and caramel fountains and any dessert you can possibly imagine!

And to conclude the weekend, Sunday morning included a Family Mass in our beautiful Chapel of the Holy Spirit followed by contiental buffett brunch in the Pitt Center. Overall the weekened was a huge success and we had about 400 families throughout! We, as a Student Life staff, were exhausted! But we sure had some great memories and laughs to share from the events of the weekend! Can't wait till next year!

 

The Student Life Staff at the Tailgate Party

Thank you for everyone who attended the events of the weekend and helped make this event a success!

 

And the countdown begins...

 

HI EVERYONE!

My name is Amanda and I am the new Student Life Graduate Assistant at Sacred Heart University! I graduated from Sacred Heart this past May with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish, and have decided to continue my education and attain my Master's degree in Education. While I take classes at night, I work in the Student Life Office during the day (upstairs in Hawley Lounge, COME VISIT!) and work on such things as Orientation and Family Weekend! My ultimate goal is to work in Higher Education, to stay in the college setting, and continue to do the things I love. It was throughout my amazing four years here at Sacred Heart that I was able to develop this passion for Higher Ed. I was involved with quite a variety of activities and leadership positions. Which is exactly what my biggest piece of advice is to any student. GET INVOLVED! It is honestly the BEST way to meet people - which is exactly what college is all about.

 

Right now in the Student Life office we are working on finishing up all the preparations for Welcome Days, GET EXCITED! The first couple days after move-in day are packed with things to do! There is no way you could possibily be bored during those days, and no way you won't meet a handleful of friends from the start! Be sure to ask your RA anyyyy questions you might have (even as simple as what time the dining hall opens)! They aren't scary people (trust me, I was one!) and they are just there to help you! Or feel free to come visit the Student Life office or call us at 203-371-7846.

 

18 DAYS TILL MOVE-IN DAY!

Don't forget to label ALL OF your luggage and bags with your last name, hall and room number before you come for move-in day. This way, when all our strong athletes help move your stuff in, they'll know EXACTLY where it should go! We are excited to see all your bright & shiny faces! :)

 

See you in 18 days!

-Amanda :)

Pack the Pitt!!!

Pack the Pitt is another great way to show your school spirit! It's held every year in the William H. Pitt athletic center and a few thousand student show up to cheer on the men's and women's basketball double header. This year it's us versus Quinnipiac. They've had a really good winning streak this season so it's going to be a fight for SHU. But if the SHU students cheer loud enough I'm thinking it might be fair game. This is one of many ways to show your school spirit at SHU and it's definitely a great event. The truth is it's hard to go anywhere around the Fairfield county area and not see some SHU pride. I'm pretty sure I could wear different SHU t-shirts and sweatpants everyday and still not need to do laundry for a few weeks. Sick? Nah... Well, at least I'm not the only one!

ANOTHER Sacred Heart University Concert!

So the Fray was AWESOME on Wednesday night. We were setting up all day and some of the members of the Fray would just walk in, look around, walk out like it was nothing. It was cool to see that they were nice guys. I think some musicians can forget about where they came from and get so star-struck that they lose touch with reality. They seemed like they were just trying to live their lives like normal, or at least as normal as possible while living off a tour bus. One went to the diner alone, another found a quiet spot to write music, one went horseback riding nearby and the last member spent some time at the gym. The stage and lighting looked so good when setup was all done. When the house lights went off and the stage lighting came on it didnt even feel like you were in an athletic center. Crowd turnout was really good. We sold about 3,000 tickets and I think everyone had a really good time.
Now we have Maroon 5 ticket sales on Monday! From one concert to the next! We're not ones to waste time and that's a really good thing when it comes to campus life! That's my post for now. There's more to talk about the Fray and the new chapel is now open starting sunday. As always if you have any questions or topics you want me to write about from an inside perspective just post them here!

Shane
www.sacredheart.edu

Hottest Concert Around - THE FRAY - @ Sacred Heart University

I know I mentioned it before but I wanted to make sure you all got your tickets to The Fray here at Sacred Heart University on Wednesday, September 23rd at 8PM in the Pitt Center! You can cal or go online for tickets: 203-371-7846 or www.SHUTickets.com 
Tickets are flying so make sure get them right away!

The Fray at Sacred Heart University
www.sacredheart.edu

The Fray @ SHU!!!

YUP - you read it right! The Fray is coming to Sacred Heart University September 23rd! You may have already seen it announced on the SHU homepage or even on The Fray's website, but regardless of your sources, it's awesome. C'mon... one of the hottest bands right now is coming to Sacred Heart. You can't deny how great that is. Ok, Ok so not everyone might be a fan of The Fray but we try and get what the most amount of people will like. Not to say that we don't have a mix of artists that come, because we definitely do. I mean, last Spring we had 50 cent. I mean those two don't even come close in comparison.

I have to say that the whole Student Activities crew does a great job at keeping options open for the students as far as entertainment goes. It's pretty rare that there be nothing happening on any given weekend (and at least a few nights during the week). I've been to a bunch of my friends campuses and the biggest difference was the amount of student involvement and student activities campus wide. I've mentioned before that the biggest mistake to make on any college campus is not getting involved. Whatever school you go to is going to become like a second home to you. Yea, it's a place that you're going to be doing work but it's also a place where you're going to have a blast and meet a ton of new people; some of which will be your closest friends, maybe for the rest of your life. You're only missing out if you don't take advantage of everything college has to offer!

Comments/Questions/Whatever...Post it!

-Shane

www.sacredheart.edu

To the incoming freshman...

Maybe everyone else realized this before I did, but pre-season students start arriving in a week. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Didn't summer just start? Didn't it just get warm? (Actually it did just get warm.) Anyway, for all the nervous incoming freshman... relax. You might be thinking how you've never been away from home before, or how you need to make as many friends as possible in the first few days, or any number of things that might be circling in your mind. Most of us have been there, me being the first to admit it. I know it may be easier said than done but just relax. You're one of 900 students that are all going through the exact same thing. There are obviously going to be the students who are excited to get away from home, or who's parents may not cook great food all the time that they'll miss, or some that are just excited in general to start something new, and that's great! But either way it's an awesome ride you're about to go on and if you don't try and enjoy it you're going to miss the best parts. What are the best parts? Well it wouldn't be as great if you didn't find out for yourself. Best suggestion? Get involved! Not all of it will just fall in your plate. You need to go after it....

Questions? Post them or send a message!

Shane

www.sacredheart.edu

Happy Birthday Colleen!

So I didn't get a chance to post yesterday on the actual birthday of my fellow graduate assistant, Colleenbut hey better late than never right? Colleen is the new graduate assistant in Student Activities, as I think I mentioned in a previous post. Unfortunately we weren't too quick to grab the camera while we were celebrating yesterday BUT... remember how we got Rob the pink whale cake a couple weeks ago? Well, apparently Carvel won't make a field hockey stick cake (whatever carvel) so basically I got the strangest looking cake I could find in the store which turned out to be this clown face. Personally, I hate clowns so it looked semi-creepy to me but it was pretty funny and delicious like all carvel cakes usually are. Of course no cake would be complete without a million candles and I also stuck in little posts with pictures of our heads cut out of everyone in the office. It was pretty funny. So here's a picture from Orientation of me and Colleen...
 

I tried posting about The Fray who is coming our way this September but my computer was not having it. I'll try it again in my next post!

Just reply to a post with any questions or send them over. I'm always looking for new things to write about!

Shane

www.sacredheart.edu